Method of and apparatus for disintegration



y 1942- J. H. KENNEDY METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR DISINTEG'RATION Filed Nov. 28,1939

Patented July 28, 1942 METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR DISINTEGRATION James H. Kennedy, Lansdowne, Pa., assignor to Morgan Concentrating Corporation, Philadelphia, Pa., a corporation of Delaware Application November 28, 1939, Serial No. 306,489

4 Claims.

My invention relates to disintegration of aggregates, especially those of placer deposits Q 11- taining values, and is designed to increase the speed of operation and the output, and also to avoid accretions and building up of distintegrated material where it is moist or damp. It relates especially to the use of the squirrel cage type of disintegrator, though it is not limited thereto and is of advantage in any disintegrator where the material receives impacts or blows, and acquires acceleration and velocity.

In the drawing showing one form of my invention,

Figure 1 is a diagrammatic longitudinal vertical sectional view of a double cage apparatus; and

Figure 2 is an enlarged detail cross section of three bars thereof.

In this form the casing 2, open at the bottom from a to b, contains two parallel overhung squirrel cage rotors 3 supported as usual from one end on rotated stub shafts while at the other ends are the inlet feed openings 4. Instead of the ordinary feed, however, I prefer to employ longitudinal directing bafiles 5 which feed the "H aggregates downwardly and inwardly to the opposite outer lower quarters of the cage substantially as shown. In this way the material is fed in the general direction of each cage movement, since in operation the cages are driven in opposite directions with their lower parts moving toward each other as indicated by the arrows. The bars or pins 6 of each cage are preferably covered with removable wear shields or liners I of hard material or of rubber which face forwardly toward the direction of rotation, as shown in Figure 2. 7

When in use the aggregates will be projected by the pin liners I and the accelerated velocity of the oppositely-projected portions will cause them to strike each other with disintegrating impacts. These intimate high velocity impacts will cause good breaking up of the aggregates without material wear on a relatively fixed surface and without liability to accretion and building up thereon of damp or wet material. These impacts will occur mainly in the quarters marked A and B and the finer aggregates will strike each other mainly in the region between the A quarters or portions of the circumferences. The material between the portions B will usually be gravel, if present, and with less fineness. In the segments C the material discharged is usually larger gravel and stones. There is, of course. no sharp line of demarcation between these portions. The disintegrated material drops down through the casing outlet and preferably upon a conveyor, not shown.

The advantages of my invention result from the better and more intimate and thorough impact of the aggregates due to their striking moving material, in this case, other parts of the aggregates. This gives better disintegration, reduces cost, substantially eliminates build-ups, and improves speed and output. While I have shown two squirrel cage rotors to impart acceleration to opposing streams of the aggregates, I do not limit myself thereto as any desirable means may be used therefor, since the main feature of my invention lies in driving two opposing streams against each other, instead of driving a stream against a relatively stationary surface. Many other changes may be made in the process and apparatus without departing from my invention.

I claim:

1.. In apparatus for disintegrating materials, a housing with an outlet at its bottom to permit all materials being disintegrated to readily discharge by gravity after impact, a pair of disintegrator cages operably mounted in an adjacently cooperative relationship for rotation within said housing, each of said cages having a substantially curved outline and being provided with peripheral openings therein for discharging materials therethrough, said cages being in a substantially side-by-side cooperative relationship and adapted to discharge material from each against that discharged from the other, the axis of one of said disintegrator cages being in a spaced-apart relationship with respect to the axis of the other of said disintegrator cages of the pair, means operably associated with said housing for feeding materials directly into each of said disintegrator cages, and means for rotating one of said pair of disintegrator cages in a clockwise direction and for rotating the other of said disintegrator cages in a counter-clockwise direction in such a manner as to move the materials from one cage outwardly against materials moving outwardly from the other cage.

2. In apparatus for disintegrating materials, a housing with an outlet at its bottom to permit all materials being disintegrated to readily discharge by gravity after impact, a pair of disintegrator cages operably mounted for rotation within said housing, each of said cages having a substantially curved outline and being provided with peripheral openings therein for discharging materials therethrough, said cages being in a substantially side-by-side cooperative relationship and adapted to discharge material from each against that discharged from the other, the axis of one of said disintegrator cages being in a spaced-apart relationship with respect to the axis of the other of said disintegrator cages of the pair, means operably associated with said housing for feeding materials directly into each of said disintegrator cages, means for rotating one of said pair of disintegrator cages ina clockwise direction and for rotating the other of said disintegrator cages in a counter-clockwise direction, and means for directing the materials being disintegrated by one of said disintegrators against the material being disintegrated by the other of said disintegrators.

3. In apparatus for disintegrating materials, a housing provided with an outlet for discharging materials being disintegrated, a pair of substantially circular cages operably mounted in a spaced-apart and adjacently cooperative relationship for rotation within said housing, means operably associated with said housing for feeding materials endwise into each of said disintegrator 'cages, means for rotating said disintegrator cages in opposite directions with respect to each other, said cage being provided with peripheral openings therein for discharging materials therethrough and against materials being discharged through peripheral openings of the other cage to thereby disintegrate the materials.

4. In an apparatus for disintegrating materials, a housing provided with an outlet for discharging disintegrated materials, a pair of spaced-apart and substantially aligned disintegrator cages of substantially continuously curved outline operably mounted for rotation within said housing, each of said cages being provided with disintegrator bars for disintegrating the material introduced therein and peripheral openings therebetween for discharging materials therefrom, means for rotating said disintegrator cages in opposite directions with respect to each other to discharge the materials through their peripheral openings against each other to further disintegrate them in the spacing between said cages.

JAMES H; KENNEDY. 

